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Originally appears in the Spring 2020 issue.

By Taylor Shryne

As environmental issues continue to become more catastrophic and prevalent throughout the planet, more of us are beginning to understand our own impacts and the roles that we as individuals play in the collective deterioration of our earth. More now than ever, it is important for us to understand the power we have to act, and to make a difference. In the City of Calgary, a local settlement agency has been working over the past three years to teach the importance of environmental stewardship to a group of young immigrant girls between the ages of nine and 13. As organizers approach their final year of the four-year project, efforts have been narrowed to focus on one major environmental theme: native pollinator health.
Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association (CIWA) is a non-profit organization which offers a range of settlement services to immigrant and refugee women, girls, and their families. CIWA applies a culturally-sensitive and gender-specific approach to services and aims to address and respond to the diverse needs of the clients they serve. Among the youth services offered at CIWA is an initiative called Project Footprint – Wilderness Club. This four-year project aims to empower its participants through themed activities related to protecting the environment and preserving ecosystems.
CIWA’s Wilderness Club is offered as an afterschool program at two locations: a local elementary school and a low-income community housing space provided by the City of Calgary. A bi-monthly mentorship component is also offered to Wilderness Club participants who would like to build on and further engage in programming through active learning and group-based projects. Facilitators aim to create a safe and inclusive space where girls can build friendships and develop a sense of social inclusion in their new country while learning about very real concepts. Immigrating is not easy for youth; many young newcomers experience isolation as they try to navigate the many language and cultural barriers at such a formative and vulnerable period in their lives. Through working together to create impactful environmental projects, newcomer girls are given the chance to build self-confidence as well as teamwork and leadership skills while fostering a sense of belonging. These moments are essential components of a secure and successful settlement process.


As program staff enter into their last year of the four-year initiative, they can reflect on the many impactful projects that these girls have designed and implemented. To date, Wilderness Club participants have taught community families how to make reusable food wraps using beeswax and newspaper; they have created a large art installation representing the impact of single-use plastics on marine life; they have planted and maintained a community garden; they have educated their peers about landfill waste through a visual project; and they have organized an upcycled fashion show to teach people the importance of reusing and upcycling clothes. The club has seen great success in using an arts-based and interactive approach to activate learning — the girls get to be creative, have fun, and raise awareness about the issues that they are passionate about. When given the opportunity to spearhead these environmental projects, newcomer girls have found purpose and meaning through youth activism.
In the final year of the project, the participants of CIWA’s Wilderness Club have decided to focus on native pollinator health — a growing, worldwide environmental concern. The first step in tackling this topic was to take advantage of the expertise and knowledge of the many community members within the City of Calgary. The club sought local bee keepers, foresters, and pollinator experts to educate on the many different facets of pollinator health. Obtaining these different community connections started with a simple Google search: ‘Native bees Calgary.’ From there, project staff were introduced to organizations like the Alberta Native Bee Council and Bee City Canada as well as local beekeepers and different community members who are actively taking part in protecting our native bee population. By reaching out and connecting with a few of these community members, project staff were then connected with other people who wanted to help. Beekeepers came in to teach the girls about the differences between native bees and Honey Bees. Local bee activist Dave Misfeldt came in to discuss his own pollinator garden, which was constructed in collaboration with the City of Calgary. He spoke of different ways in which we can protect our native pollinators and what a pollinator habitat has to include in order for it to be successful. The girls then spread that knowledge to their peers and other community members through art and community outreach. Most importantly, that base of knowledge will serve as a foundation as they embark on their year-end project: building a pollinator habitat of their own.
This ambitious project is the means by which the girls in the Wilderness Club aim to achieve their main goal for this year of seeing their school become the second recognized Bee School in the province of Alberta. Bee School designations are given by an organization called Bee City Canada (or its US counterpart Bee City USA) to schools, businesses, or even cities that are taking active steps towards protecting our world’s pollinators. Based on the teachings of the various expertise of community partners, club participants know that a successful pollinator habitat includes sandy areas where solitary bees can nest, additional nesting areas in the form of bee condos, and a variety of native plants that bloom at different times of the year to keep a continual food source for the pollinators. As a result, the girls’ design for their pollinator habitat includes places to allow underground nesting, bee boxes, and native wildflowers that they intend to plant this spring on the school property. This habitat would be maintained as a collaborative effort between students and staff and used as a wonderful, on-site educational station for students. In an effort to expand their outreach, the girls plan to plant an additional pollinator garden on a plot of land designated by Calgary Housing. Both of these gardens would provide opportunities for students and community members alike to observe firsthand the importance of native pollinators, what they do for us, and why it is so important that we take steps to protect them. At the end of the school year, the Wilderness Club hopes to plan a celebration during Pollinator Week, June 22–28, 2020, in order to honor a year of hard work spent protecting pollinators.
Engaging newcomer youth in environmental stewardship has given these girls a sense of purpose and ownership in their new communities. They have come to learn that this entire planet, no matter where we are living, is our home and that it is our responsibility to protect and honor it. Over the past four years of Project Footprint, more than 120 immigrant girls in the City of Calgary have built friendships, gained confidence, and learned about their roles and impacts as citizens of Planet Earth. Through their insight and contributions to the many different projects that this club has created, over 2,000 Calgary community members have been exposed to sustainable environmental practices and gained knowledge about the various environmental issues the world is facing. As the project comes to a close in June, organizers of the initiative can feel fulfilled knowing that CIWA’s Wilderness Club has not only made a positive environmental impact in the Calgary area, but has given young immigrant girls a space to grow, belong, and feel empowered.

Taylor Shryne is a Youth Facilitator at Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association. Her background is in French & Education, but she is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Social Work.